(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received in audience participants in a Congress for Surgeons who work with oncological patients.

In his address, he quoted Blessed John Paul II pointing out that when caring for the sick it is essential not to lose sight of the human person, created in the image of God and united in body and spirit.Please find below Vatican Radio’s translation of the Pope’s address:Dear Brothers and Sisters,I extend my welcome to all of you who are participating in the Congress organized by the Italian Society of Oncological Surgery, promoted by the “La Sapienza” University of Rome and by the “Sant’Andrea Hospital”. In welcoming you, my thoughts go to all the men and women that you care for, and I pray for them.Scientific research has multiplied the possibilities of prevention and healing, it has allowed for the discovery of therapies that are indicated in caring for a variety of pathologies. This is your work as well: a highly valuable commitment that aims to respond to the expectations and the hopes of many ill people across the world.But in order to be able to speak of full health it is necessary to not lose sight of the human person, created in the image of God, and who is unity of body and spirit. The Greeks were more precise: body, soul and spirit. Man is that unity. It is possible to distinguish these two elements but not to separate them, because the human person is one. So, disease, the experience of pain and suffering, do not regard solely the corporal dimension, but man in his totality. From this stems the need for integral care, that considers the person in his entirety, and that unites medical care – “technical care” – a human, psychological and social support, because the physician must care for all: the human body, with its psychological, social and spiritual dimension; as well as the spiritual accompaniment and support for the family members of the sick person. This means that it is indispensable that medical operators be “led by an integrally human view of illness and who as a result are able to affect a fully human approach to the sick parson” (John Paul II, Motu Proprio Dolentium hominum, 11 February 1985).Brotherly sharing with the sick opens us to the true beauty of human life, including its fragility, helping us to recognize the dignity and the value of every human being, in whatever condition he or she may find himself, from conception to death.Dear friends, Holy Week begins tomorrow. It culminates in the Triduum of the Passion, the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. Here He takes on human suffering in its totality, which is then redeemed by God. By God-Love. Only Christ gives meaning to the scandal of innocent suffering. So many times Dostoyevsky’s anguished query comes to mind: why do children suffer? Only Christ can give meaning to this “scandal”. You too can look to Him, crucified and resurrected, in your daily work. And at the feet of Jesus’s Cross we also meet Our Lady of Sorrows. She is the Mother of all humanity, and she is always close to her sick and suffering children. If our faith wavers, hers does not. May Mary support you in your commitment towards research and work. I pray the Lord to bless you all. Thank you.Text from Vatican Radio website

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Annmarie Richards is a Jamaican woman who has raised 32 children, but not before she came from a broken home, in a struggling community herself. She experienced first-hand what it feels like to be a forgotten victim of Jamaica's painful economic situation. She has since devoted her life to finding homeless children, raising them as her own, and giving them new opportunities.It's her goal to take children off the streets and integrate them into school systems, giving them a foundation to build a wonderful life.Annmarie has helped numerous people turn their lives around. She has provided a home to women stuck in prostitution circles, drug addicts, and others. She not only takes troubled people off the streets, but she also helps them thrive in society!Thank you for letting us tell your story Annmarie, we love you!You can help support Annmarie and her cause of the Jamaican people by sharing this video with everyone you know! Help play it forward for Annmarie. Play it, Like it, Share it!Film by Matthew Butler, Joel Robbins, Jenny LjungEdited by Matthew Butler using Adobe Premiere Pro CC.Shared from GoBokaPlay

Saturday of the Fifth Week of LentLectionary: 256

Reading 1EZ 37:21-28

Thus says the Lord GOD:I will take the children of Israel from among the nationsto which they have come,and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.I will make them one nation upon the land,in the mountains of Israel,and there shall be one prince for them all.Never again shall they be two nations,and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols,their abominations, and all their transgressions.I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy,and cleanse them so that they may be my peopleand I may be their God.My servant David shall be prince over them,and there shall be one shepherd for them all;they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.They shall live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob,the land where their fathers lived;they shall live on it forever,they, and their children, and their children’s children,with my servant David their prince forever.I will make with them a covenant of peace;it shall be an everlasting covenant with them,and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.My dwelling shall be with them;I will be their God, and they shall be my people.Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD,who make Israel holy,when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.

Responsorial Psalm JER 31:10, 11-12ABCD, 13

R. (see 10d) The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,proclaim it on distant isles, and say:He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,he guards them as a shepherd his flock.R. The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.The LORD shall ransom Jacob,he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:The grain, the wine, and the oil,the sheep and the oxen.R. The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.Then the virgins shall make merry and dance,and young men and old as well.I will turn their mourning into joy,I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.R. The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.

Gospel JN 11:45-56

Many of the Jews who had come to Maryand seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.But some of them went to the Phariseesand told them what Jesus had done.So the chief priests and the Phariseesconvened the Sanhedrin and said,“What are we going to do?This man is performing many signs.If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,and the Romans will comeand take away both our land and our nation.”But one of them, Caiaphas,who was high priest that year, said to them,“You know nothing,nor do you consider that it is better for youthat one man should die instead of the people,so that the whole nation may not perish.”He did not say this on his own,but since he was high priest for that year,he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,and not only for the nation,but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.So from that day on they planned to kill him.

So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,but he left for the region near the desert,to a town called Ephraim,and there he remained with his disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near,and many went up from the country to Jerusalembefore Passover to purify themselves.They looked for Jesus and said to one anotheras they were in the temple area, “What do you think?That he will not come to the feast?”

On March 19 the Order of the Companions of the Cross gained their 1st Bishop. Christian Riesbeck of the Companions of the Cross was ordained as Ottawa's Auxiliary Bishop. Fr. Scott McCaig,the Companion’s General Superior expressed joy at this news. Fr. Bob Bedard founded the Companions in 1985 in Ottawa. The order is now in Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto, Houston and Detroit with 10 parishes, 37 priests, one deacon and 14 seminarians. Riesbeck who is only 44 years old studied Canon Law.Here is a brief Biography from the Companions Site: Bishop-elect Riesbeck was born in Montreal on February 7, 1970 to Heribert Riesbeck, a native of Germany and Colette Levesque, originally from Grand Falls, New Brunswick. His elementary schooling took place in Aylmer, Quebec and in Nepean, Ontario and his secondary schooling at St. Pius X High School in Nepean. He has earned a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree in political science from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Divinity degree from St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto and a Master’s degree and Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. Ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Marcel Gervais as a member of the Companions of the Cross at Notre Dame Cathedral on October 12, 1996, he served for brief periods between 1996 and 1999 at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Kingston, St. Jude’s in Hawkesbury, Our Lady of Divine Love in Pendleton and St. Francis Xavier in Brockville before becoming pastor of Queen of Peace parish in Houston, Texas (1999-2008). Bishop-elect Riesbeck’s parents and two sisters Sylvie (Craig) and Heidi (Pierre) live in Ottawa. Besides English and French, he speaks Spanish and German. -

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written to the leaders of government and the opposition in Venezuela, urging a peaceful and negotiated solution to the ongoing political crisis.

The Holy Father’s message was read out by Archbishop Aldo Giordano, the Apostolic Nuncio in Caracas at the start of a much-anticipated meeting Thursday night between President Nicolas Maduro and key members of the opposition.

Pope Francis writes that he is aware of the “restlessness and pain felt by so many people”, and expresses his closes to the victims of violence and their families, while at the same reiterating his deep conviction that violence can never bring peace only more violence.

Thursday's talks, which were televised, are first major effort at reconciliation since anti-government protests broke out in Venezuelan cities in early February. Key leaders of the opposition, including two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, agreed to sit down with Maduro after receiving assurances that the socialist government is willing to discuss divisive issues such as an amnesty for jailed government opponents and the creation of an independent truth commission to investigate who's to blame for at least 40 deaths tied to the unrest. The Holy See was also invited to take part in the talks as a neutral observer.

In his letter, Pope Francis calls on those participating in the talks “not to get stuck in the conflict of the moment” but to open themselves to one another “to become true builders of peace”. He also asks them to have the courage to look beyond their differences for the good of the Venezuelan people and their own children’s future.

They can do this, he says, by focusing on what unites them rather than what divides them: their love for their Nation, their faith in God, their shared concerns for the consequences of the economic crisis, such as rising rates of violence and crime.

Pope Francis concludes, that the path of dialogue is a long and difficult one but the only one that can lead to true justice and peace.

Below a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s letter to President Nicolas Maduro Moros, members of Government, representatives of the Mesa de Unidad Democratica and UNASUR leaders.

“Firstly, I desire to thank you for inviting the Holy See to take part in this process of dialogue and peace for your beloved country. I assure each of you of my prayers, so that this meeting and the process you are undertaking bear the desired fruits of national reconciliation and peace, gifts that we invoke from God, for the Venezuelan population.

I am aware of the restlessness and pain that many people are experiencing, and while I express my concern for what is taking place, I renew my affection for all Venezuelans, especially for the victims of violence and their families. I am deeply convinced that violence can never bring peace and wellbeing to a country, because it only ever generates more violence. On the contrary, through dialogue you can rediscover common and shared ground that will help to overcome the current moment of conflict and polarization, which profoundly wounds Venezuela, to find new forms of collaboration. In respect and recognition of the differences that exist in your country, the common good can be favored. In fact, all of you share in the love you have for your nation and its people. You also share concerns linked to the economic crisis, violence and criminality. You all care deeply about your children’s future and desire that peace which distinguishes the Venezuelan people. You all share faith in God and the will to defend the dignity of the human person.

This is what draws you together and urges you to undertake a process of dialogue which begins today, which must be rooted in an authentic culture of encounter, aware that unity must always prevail over conflict. Therefore, `I urge you not to get stuck in the conflict of the moment but open yourselves to one another to become true builders of peace. At the heart of all sincere dialogue is reciprocal recognition and respect . Above all, there is the “heroism” of forgiveness and mercy, which free us from resentment, from hate and open up a road that is truly new. It is a long and difficult road, which requires patience and courage, but it is the only one that can lead to justice and peace. For the good of all your people and the future of your children, I ask you to have this courage.

With these sentiments I accompany the dear Venezuelan nation, and upon each of you I impart my Apostolic Blessing, invoking the help of Our Lord”.

Entered in the Roman Martyrology on 12 April as a Bishop of Verona martyred under Gallienus. Probably, however, he was a confessor who governed the Church of Verona from 362-380. At Verona a basilica, San Zenone, is dedicated to his honour, and some thirty churches and chapels bear his name. In the basilica his statue, bearing the episcopal insignia, is prominent in the choir; coins with his likeness and an inscription were in use. On 21 May and 6 Dec. the translation of his body and his consecration were formerly commemorated. In "De viris illust." Of St. Jerome and Gennadius, Zeno is not mentioned, but St. Ambrose (Ep. v) speaks of him as an episcopus sanctae memoriae, and St. Gregory (Dial., III, 19) relates a miracle wrought at the Church of St. Zeno at Verona. Mabillon ("Vetera analecta", Paris, 1675) published an anonymous poem, "De landibus Veronae", taken from the writing of Ratherius, Bishop of Verona (d. 974), found in the abbey at Lobbes in Belgium (P.L., XI, 154, 225), which gives a list of the bishops of Verona and makes Zeno eighth. In the Monastery di Classe at Ravenna was found an eighth-century chasuble (casula diptycha) with the names and pictures of thirty-five bishops of Verona on its front and back; among them was that of Zeno. This list was accepted by Gams in his "Series episcoporum" (Bigelmair, p. 27). Zeno had not been known as a writer before 1508, when two Dominicans, Albertus Castellanus and Jacobus de Leuco, edited at Venice 105 tractatus or sermons found in the episcopal library of Verona fifty years earlier. In 1739 the brothers Ballerini published "S. Zenonis episcopi Veronae sermones", with an elaborate prolegomena. From these it appears that Zeno was a native of Africa, eighth Bishop of Verona (362-80), an able speaker, and an untiring champion of Christianity against the heathens and of orthodoxy against the Arians. Much controversy arose as to the time at which St. Zeno lives, whether two bishops of Verona of this name were to be admitted or but one, and on the authorship of the sermons. Various opinions were held by Sixtus of Siena, Baronius, Ughelli, Dupin, Tillemont, Fabricius, and others. Of the 105 sermons 12 have been rejected as belonging to other authors. Of the rest 16 are larger sermons, the others merely sketches or perhaps fragments. They contain valuable material on Catholic doctrine, practice, and liturgy; they treat of God, creation, the Blessed Virgin, Holy Scriptures, the Church, the sacraments, etc., and warn against the vices of the day.

The immediate successor of Pope Silvester, Arcus, ruled the Roman Church for only a very short period — from 18 January to 7 October, 336 — and after his death the papal chair remained vacant for four months. What occasioned this comparatively long vacancy is unknown. On 6 Feb., 337, Julius, son of Rustics and a native of Rome, was elected pope. His pontificate is chiefly celebrated for his judicious and firm intervention in the Arian controversies, about which we have abundant sources of information. After the death of Constantine the Great (22 May, 337), his son Constantine II, Governor of Gaul, permitted the exiled Athanasius to return to his See of Alexandria (see ATHANASIUS). The Arians in Egypt, however, set up a rival bishop in the person of Pistus, and sent an embassy to Julius asking him to admit Pistus into communion with Rome, and delivering to the pope the decisions of the Council of Tyre (335) to prove that Athanasius had been validly deposed. On his side Athanasius likewise sent envoys to Rome to deliver to Julius a synodal letter of the Egyptian bishops, containing a complete justification of their patriarch. On the arrival of the Athanasian envoys in Rome, Macarius, the head of the Arian representatives, left the city; the two remaining Arian envoys, with the Athanasian deputies, were summoned by Pope Julius. The Arian envoys now begged the pope to assemble a great synod before which both parties should present their case for decision.

Julius convened the synod at Rome, having dispatched two envoys to bear a letter of invitation to the Eastern bishops. Under the leadership of Eusebius, who had been raised from Nicomedia to the See of Constantinople, the Arian bishops had meanwhile held a council at Antioch, and elected George of Cappadocia Bishop of Alexandria in the place of Pistus. George was intruded forcibly into his see, and Athanasius, being again exiled, made his way to Rome. Many other Eastern bishops removed by the Arian party, among them Marcellus of Ancyra, also came to Rome. In a letter couched in haughty terms, however, the Arian bishops of the party of Eusebius refused to attend the synod summoned by Julius. The synod was held in the autumn of 340 or 341, under the presidency of the pope, in the titular church of the presbyter Vitus. After a detailed examination of the documents, Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra, who had made a satisfactory profession of faith, were exonerated and re-established in their episcopal rights. Pope Julius communicated this decision in a very notable and able letter to the bishops of the Eusebian party. In this letter he justifies his proceedings in the case, defends in detail his action in reinstating Athanasius, and animadverts strongly on the non-appearance of the Eastern bishops at the council, the convening of which they themselves had suggested. Even if Athanasius and his companions were somewhat to blame, the letter runs, the Alexandrian Church should first have written to the pope. "Can you be ignorant," writes the pope, "that this is the custom, that we should be written to first, so that from here what is just may be defined" (Julii ep. ad Antiochenos, c. xxii). After his victory over his brother Constantine II, Emperor Constans was ruler over the greater part of the Empire. He was entirely orthodox in his views, and, at the request of the pope and other Western bishops, interceded with his brother Constantius, Emperor of the East, in favour of the bishops who had been deposed and persecuted by the Arian party. Both rulers agreed that there should be convened a general council of the Western and Eastern bishops at Sardica, the principal city of the Province of Dacia Mediterranea (the modern Sofia). It took place in the autumn of 342 or 343, Julius sending as his representatives the priests Archidamus and Philoxenus and the deacon Leo. Although the Eastern bishops of the Arian party did not join in the council, but held their assembly separate and then departed, the synod nevertheless accomplished its task. Through the important canons iii, iv, and v (vii in the Latin text) of this council, the procedure against accused bishops was more exactly regulated, and the manner of the papal intervention in the condemnation of bishops was definitely established.

At the close of its transactions the synod communicated its decisions to the pope in a dutiful letter. Notwithstanding the reaffirmation of his innocence by the Synod of Sardica, St. Athanasius was not restored to his see by Emperor Constantius until after the death of George, the rival Bishop of Alexandria, in 346. Pope Julius took this occasion to write a letter, which is still extant, to the priests, deacons, and the faithful of Alexandria, to congratulate them on the return of their great pastor. The two bishops Ursacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursia, who, on account of their Arianism, had been deposed by the Council of Sardica, now made a formal recantation of their error to Julius, who, having summoned them to an audience and received a signed confession of faith, restored to them their episcopal sees. Concerning the inner life of the Roman Church during the pontificate of Julius we have no exact information; all agree, however, that there was a rapid increase in the number of the faithful in Rome, where Julius had two new basilicas erected: the titular church of Julius (now S. Maria in Trastevere) and the Basilica Julia (now the Church of the Twelve Apostles). Beside these he built three churches over cemeteries outside the walls of Rome: one on the road to Porto, a second on the Via Aurelia, and a third on the Via Flaminia at the tomb of the martyr St. Valentine. The ruins of the last-mentioned have been discovered. The veneration of the faithful for the tombs of the martyrs continued to spread rapidly. Under the pontificate of Julius, if not earlier, catalogues of feast-days of saints came into use — the Roman feast-calendar of Philocalus dates from the year 336.

Through St. Athanasius, who remained in Rome several years subsequent to 339, the Egyptian monastic life became well-known in the capital, and the example of the hermits of the Egyptian deserts found many imitators in the Roman Church. Julius died on 12 April, 352, and was buried in the catacombs of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, and, very soon after his death, was honoured as a saint. His body was later transported to S. Maria in Trastevere, the church which he had built. His feast is celebrated on 12 April.

2014

Officials at an elementary school in Florida have started an investigation after a kindergartner who stated that she was ‘not allowed to pray’ over her lunch. They have identified the monitor responsible for interrupting her prayer. Marcos and Kathy Perez told reporters last week that their daughter Gabriella was stopped from praying at Carillon Elementary School in Oviedo. They emailed the school about the matter and recorded a video of Gabriella outlining the incident in her own words. “I was about to pray and say something to Jesus,” Gabriella explained, showing how she had put her hands together and bowed her head. “My lunch teacher told me when I was about to say something, she said, ‘You’re not allowed to pray.’” “[I said] ‘It’s good to pray,’” the kindergartner continued. “And she just said, ‘It’s not good.’” The Perez’ contacted Principal Analynn Jones, who then spoke to staff members about the issue and to outline that students have the right to pray in school. Liberty Institute, which has been assisting the Perez family at no charge.